In recent years, local small-boat fishers who pursue prized bottomfish such as ehu, onaga and the red opakapaka that\u2019s popular on table spreads across Hawai\u02bbi each New Year\u2019s have seen a troubling spike in sharks that swoop in and tear their catch off the hook.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re basically losing money because they can\u2019t bring in the fish,\u201d said Phil Fernandez, president of the advocacy group Hawai\u02bbi Fishermen\u2019s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition. \u201cThe fish markets won\u2019t buy a fish that has a bite on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The growing incidents, known as shark depredation, have grown so common in Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s coastal waters and other parts of the Pacific, he said, that many of those bottomfishers, trollers and others who rely on the catch for their livelihood are on the verge of giving up the trade. <\/p>\n
Some fishers call such depredation \u201cpaying the tax man,\u201d and the tax is growing. Reports indicate sharks now bite off catch in at least 1 of every 4 licensed fishing trips<\/a> out on Hawaiian waters. The rates are currently at their highest on record in the 20 or so years the state has been collecting that data, aquatic biologist Bryan Ishida said.<\/p>\n Various shark repellents that exploit the animals\u2019 aversion to certain chemicals, electric charges and magnetic fields are already for sale and used by ocean swimmers and fishers in other regions, such as Florida, where recreational fishing is a big draw. <\/p>\n However, researchers and fishers in the Pacific have only just started testing those repellents to see which types and designs might work best locally. So far, the results have been mixed.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I didn\u2019t really know anything about the Western Pacific, and so I would love to get out there and test,\u201d said Eric Stroud, a managing partner with the research and development company SharkDefense<\/a>, which makes chemical repellents.<\/p>\n He\u2019s interested in getting to Guam in particular because incidents there are especially high. He wants to study how people there fish and see how his company could supply them with repellents.<\/p>\n Shark depredation was among the most pressing issues that fishers around the Pacific raised during a series of listening sessions that the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council held last year. The group held a follow-up workshop in February on efforts to further address the problem and plans to report on the findings at Wespac\u2019s next Scientific and Statistical Committee meeting March 17.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, scientists with the University of Hawai\u02bbi M\u0101noa\u2019s Hawai\u02bbi Institute of Marine Biology are training local fishers to use forensic DNA kits on torn and bitten fish to trace which shark species nabbed their catch. <\/p>\n They\u2019re also tracking shark movements over time to see how often they visit key fishing grounds, institute officials said, to ultimately try and reduce those encounters with small-boat fishers. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are building the first truly comprehensive effort,\u201d institute research professor Carl Meyer said in an emailed summary, \u201cto understand and mitigate shark depredation in these fisheries.\u201d<\/p>\n Magnetic Fields And Stinky Repellants<\/p>\n Fernandez, who\u2019s been troll-fishing off the Kona Coast since the late 1980s, said shark depredation wasn\u2019t an issue on Hawai\u02bbi island when he started fishing there. The incidents only started to emerge in the past 20 years, he said, and then grew into a serious concern for small-boat fishers in the past several years.<\/p>\n It\u2019s still not clear what\u2019s causing the uptick in plundering, Stroud and others said. Some suspect it\u2019s related to warming waters due to climate change driving the fish that sharks prey on to different areas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of speculation,\u201d Fernandez said. Many fishermen think the local reef, Galapagos and tiger sharks as well as pelagic oceanic whitetips that visit the area have learned to associate small fishing boats with an easy way to grab a meal.<\/p>\n Small boats that frequent the Penguin Banks<\/a> fishing grounds \u2014 which are off of Moloka\u02bbi \u2014 now constantly move around to avoid sharks spotted nearby. Some fishers turn off their engines<\/a> the moment they catch a fish, Fernandez added, because they\u2019re worried sharks connect the sound of the propeller to an easy meal.<\/p>\n \u201cSharks,\u201d he said, \u201care very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n